Activations: Sandcastles

This also appears in the June issue of SwimBikeRun St. Louis Magazine.

Activation – noun: making active and effective

As a reader of this magazine, you're probably interested in physical fitness. You may have goals to become more active, get faster, try something new, maintain your health, or pursue a limitless list of other life-enhancing possibilities.

You probably also have non-athletic goals. If you don’t, you should. These goals could involve career, education, relationships, family, spirituality, finance, or music — whatever lights the fire inside you and brings you satisfaction.

But what about those times when you don’t seem to be making any progress? You have nothing to show for your efforts. Your diligent consistency feels like it’s not paying off and you can’t seem to get any traction. The question we’ve all asked ourselves during these phases, whether they last for weeks or years, is, “Is this worth it?”

In a results-oriented society in which the false hope of overnight success is being pitched to us every waking hour — “buy now, stock poised to triple,” “guaranteed rock hard abs in 5 minutes,” “lose 20 pounds by this weekend” — it’s easy to think that small, incremental, almost unnoticeable progress isn’t enough.

Why should I work late again? Nobody seems to notice, anyway. Why should I keep going to masters swimming when I’ll never be good enough for the fast lane?

I hope you’ve also experienced stretches in which everything is clicking. Maybe you get a promotion, your training is injury-free, your race results show a nice blend of solid performances and PRs, and your relationships are deep and meaningful. This might call for a proclamation of being in ”the zone.” Using sand as a metaphor for achievement, during these times a dump truck is backing up to your front door and unloading around the clock.

In reality, however, that dump truck unloading sand isn’t how you got into the zone. Most likely you’ve been bringing home a few handfuls or maybe even a daily grain or two of sand over the years. The accumulation is starting to take shape, as if it has been compounding, and your own mini-sandcastle rises up, representing the efforts and progress you may not have realized you were making. The occasional harsh wave may wipe out what you’ve been building but the sand will still be there, waiting to be reshaped.

People are noticing what you are doing and saying. They're posting mental notes when you take action, come through in the clutch, do your job, lend a hand, or give an encouraging word. It might not always feel like it, but people are paying attention and your body is listening to how you are treating it. You'll reap the benefits in the long run.

I'm not naïve enough to think all the people of the world are cheering each other on or that the good guys and gals always win. The people paying attention include “the haters:” folks who want to see you struggle. They check the race results and feel better when they notice you still can’t beat their bike split. They stock their water bottles with endurance-formula “Haterade” and sip away while hoping no one reaps the rewards of hard work on the road or in the office. Biggie might tell you they have Ph.D.’s: player-hater degrees. Don’t mind ‘em. Deactivate them from your consciousness and go back to work on that sandcastle masterpiece you’ve been so diligently sculpting. It's starting to take shape, isn’t it?

Good luck building your sandcastles.

Respect,
JPD